Amazon’s ‘The Boys’ Will Be Shocking, But Won’t Go As Far As The Comics [TCA 2019]
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have produced another TV series based on a Garth Ennis comic book.The Boysis about a world in which superheroes are A-holes and cause lots of collateral damage, including civilian death. The title characters are the group who step up to keep the superheroes in line. Rogen, Goldberg, EP Eric Kripke and cast were on an Amazon panel for the Television Critics Association to discuss the new streaming series coming later this year.Here are five things we learned fromThe Boys' panel.
If Preacher’s Too Much For You, Prepare For The Boys
Collateral damage and civilian deaths are one thing, but the comic version ofThe Boysgoes there and beyond. Some superheroes even sexually harass women, or worse. Kripke didn’t want to shy away from the worst of the abuse of superpower:
It’s understandable that there would be concerns about how a superhero show would handle rape. No one wants to see sexual assault exploited, on a superhero show or any show. But it’s all about handling it respectfully. Said Kripke:
Not Anything Goes Though
That’s not to say thatThe Boyswill do anything. There are lines Kripke won’t cross, and some of those lines are lines Ennis crossed in the comics:
So maybe making Hitler a sympathetic character, as AMC’sPreacherseries did, would be a bridge too far forThe Boys.
Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Comic books like Superman, Spider-Man and Batman show noble characters learning to use their power for good. That’s aspirational, but superheroes are still people. Not everyone is going to get the message that with great power comes great responsibility. That’s whatThe Boystackles.“We’re going to explore what would it really be to be the most powerful man on the planet’s psychology?” Kripke said. “How fed up you would be? Or how insecure you might be if your only power is talking to fish? How stressful it is to be the world’s fastest man, but you’re only a good hero if you are the world’s fastest man, so you are basically super Lance Armstrong?“Lance Armstrong is a good reference. If a regular athlete thought he was above the law, how corrupt would an actual speedster be?“And so, to be able to deconstruct all of it and to ground it in our world, and to play with the irreverence of it, I think is something that people are really going to enjoy because they’ve had these huge myths and it’s all been so self-important,” Kripke said. “And so for a show to come around and just kind of kick the s out of it, I think it going to be a blast.”
Did Garth Ennis Predict Trump?
The Boysfirst published in 2006. Yet makingThe Boyson Amazon in 2019 seemed apropos. Kripke said:
Not to sayThe Boysis a political show, but it’s a metaphor as most good superhero stories are. Kripke added:
Where the Real World Ends…
The Boystakes place ostensibly in 2019. Jimmy Fallon hostsThe Tonight Showand we have smartphones and social media. However, our real world doesn’t have deadly superheroes… yet. But the idea was to make superheroes the one fantasy element in our real world. Seth Rogen explained:
Rogen will cameo inThe Boyslater as well. As he joked:
Superheroes making talk show rounds is also funny, and the soundtrack is full of hit rock songs to score the set piece action scenes.Look forThe Boyson Amazon Prime later this year.
